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August 28, 2017
How to Increase Your Traffic on Amazon

Retailers across the globe recognize the potential of selling on Amazon, but there’s a difference between merely listing your products on Amazon and being successful there.

As you list more products on Amazon, you may find it difficult to increase the traffic to your listings. Reasons for low traffic can vary widely: You might have a very niche brand or a sub-category with fewer competitors or high margins.

Know the Components of the Search Results Algorithm

Amazon’s search results algorithm is the marketplace’s secret sauce — as closely guarded as the Buy Box formula. That said, even if we don’t know the exact algorithm, Amazon often discloses the main ingredients to sellers: Price, availability, selection and sales history all have an impact on the placement of your products in Amazon’s search results. In addition, Amazon shuffles the search results to more evenly promote products, with the best selling products displaying toward the beginning of the list.

Keep in mind that the algorithm varies across categories and countries. For example, from a buyer’s perspective, the logic to shopping for a camera can be very different to browsing for a book. Ask yourself: What criteria are most important for the category of products in this country from a buyer’s perspective? Ensure that you constantly test and monitor any improvement and variation.

You will notice the prominence of the ‘Prime’ logo for eligible offers in Amazon’s search results.

Use Keywords Strategically

Keywords are the primary method buyers use to find products on Amazon. Finding the best search terms goes a long way toward increasing product visibility and sales, especially if you’re selling a new product or aren’t a popular brand. Some tips for making the most out of keywords:

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and use the same terms that are popular on your own website or paid search campaigns.

When entering keywords, try to use single words instead of phrases. If you use phrases, then buyers must type each entry exactly as you entered it to be effective. Listing words separately allows for more flexible combinations.

Luckily, you don’t need to repeat keywords found in your product title since those are already searchable. Reserve these for additional terms that help buyers find your products.

If you aren’t getting the sales you expect, continue to experiment until you find the best combination of product title and search terms.

If you want Amazon to suggest specific keywords, just input one of your keywords in Amazon’s search bar. You may see some “related searches” suggested by Amazon. If relevant, use the keywords from those related searches in your data feed. It’s very manual, but can be helpful for a specific product.

Avoid using third parties’ trademarks or brands as search terms. Infringing on intellectual property rights can lead to notifications from Amazon’s Seller Performance risk team — and potentially suspensions.

Improve Search Results with Optimized Pricing

This is probably the most important recommendation. Once you’ve improved your keywords, consider offering a discount to increase your chances of showing up in the first search results. Discounting will help increase your product’s sales history as well as its popularity.

If you want to optimize your pricing, weigh your price against popularity. To find your products with the most page views, go to your Seller Central account, then Reports, and finally to Business Reports: Detail Page Sales and Traffic.

To extract the most relevant data, we recommend looking at one month at a time. To look at your most popular products, sort results by Page Views descending, download the report and compare the page views to the number of orders. Add this data to the Buy Box percentage; if a product is popular but not generating sales, your pricing probably isn’t competitive enough.

Now sort your results in Page View in ascending order and download the report. These products are not popular in Amazon’s search results, so you might need to improve the keywords and the product pages, especially if they generate high margins. Remember that this report does not reflect your full inventory, so it’s important to work on segments only (for example, top 50 or top 100).

Note: Pricing can get time-consuming quickly. Having a tool like an Algorithmic Repricer can help you optimize your pricing strategy more efficiently.

Quick Wins

Finally, if you’re looking to get more traffic quickly during the next quarter, consider these options:

Access to the Prime Buyer: Using programs like FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) and Seller Fulfilled Prime helps to increase inventory turns, and the Prime logo in the search results can increase conversion.

Sponsored Products: They surface higher in search based on keywords that you know are important to your products.

Assessing your Amazon metrics provides insights into improving your visibility. We hope you find these tips useful and that they help boost your traffic on Amazon.

Do you have Amazon questions? Want to start selling on one of the world’s largest marketplaces? Our e-commerce experts are ready to help! Contact us today and a consultant will be in touch.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2013 and has since been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.